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Businessman battles WA govt for $50m

Andrea Hayward

Property developer Warren Anderson has vowed to fight on after failing in a legal action against the West Australian government that dates back to the infamous WA Inc era of the 1980s.

Mr Anderson's private company Tipperary Developments first launched a claim to recover $50 million plus interest from the WA government in 1992.

The businessman claims a former chief-of-staff to former WA premier Peter Dowding gave him a verbal assurance the state would guarantee $50 million he provided in 1988 to prop up Laurie Connell's merchant bank Rothwells.

Mr Anderson said Mr Dowding gave him a similar verbal assurance the money would be covered by the state government if Rothwells could not repay the amount.

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He said Mr Dowding had declined to enter into a written agreement.

Immediately after the $50 million was invested, it was withdrawn from Rothwells and transferred to the Government Employees Superannuation Board (GESB), which had invested in Rothwells.

The bank collapsed some months after.

Mr Anderson had agreed to the condition to hand over the $50 million in return for a tender agreement for a CBD site put up for sale by the WA government.

Kerry Packer's Consolidated Press Holdings was involved with Mr Anderson in a consortium which later bought the site, but Mr Packer declined to provide any of the $50 million attached to the deal.

Mr Anderson's lawyers argued at a 2006 trial, which ended in his defeat, that with accrued interest he was entitled to about $90 million.

He received $24 million.

On Wednesday, the millionaire was dealt another legal blow when three judges dismissed an appeal of the 2006 decision in the WA Supreme Court.

Mr Anderson said it was not the end of the road and he would seek to take it to the nation's highest court.

"I've got to seek leave for the right of appeal to Canberra (The High Court), which I will do because it's pretty obvious what's happening there ... in Perth," Mr Anderson told AAP from Sydney.

"It's cost me a lot of money to date, a hell of a lot of money, to try and seek justice as they call it, it seems to be a myth these days justice, doesn't it?" he said.

"It's like a cloud of smoke, you go to grab it and it's not there."

The three judges unanimously dismissed Mr Anderson's appeal.

The 1980s were labelled the WA Inc era after former premier Brian Burke's Labor government became embroiled in a number of failed corporate deals and financial disasters, including the collapse of Rothwells.

Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars were lost during the scandal.